Penniyar Water Dispute: Supreme Court Judges from Karnataka and Tamil Nadu recuse

The two Supreme Court judges tasked with hearing the inter-State water dispute over the Pennaiyar river today intimated their decision to recuse from hearing the case since they hail from the rival States involved in the case..In a lighter vein, the judges orally commented that they may start fighting with each other if they were to deal with the dispute. .The case was slated to be heard today by a bench of Justices AS Bopanna and MM Sundresh, when the issue was pointed out by the judges themselves. ."We both cannot hear," Justice Sundresh, who hails from Tamil Nadu, said."We will start fighting," Justice Bopanna, who is from Karnataka, added in a lighter vein. .The case concerns a dispute over the sharing of water from the Pennaiyar river. The Tamil Nadu government had filed an original suit in the matter against the Karnataka government and the Central government.While in Tamil Nadu, the water body is called the Pennaiyar river, the river is referred to as Dakshina Pinakini in Kannada..The Union Jal Shakti Ministry, through an affidavit, had informed the apex court on Tuesday that the Union Cabinet has not yet taken a final call on the proposal to form a Pennaiyar Water Disputes Tribunal, although the proposal has been sent for approval via the Cabinet Secretariat..In November 2022, the Court had pulled up the Centre for a delay in resolving the inter-State dispute through negotiations. Prior to this, in January 2019, the Court had allowed the State of Tamil Nadu to seek the constitution of the tribunal to solve the vexed issue.In May, the Supreme Court had granted another time extension for this purpose. .The two States of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka have had similar disputes over the Cauvery/Kaveri river as well. In February 2018, the Supreme Court passed its verdict in the Cauvery river case, while observing that water bodies are national assets and that no one State could claim exclusive rights over them.That Karnataka-Tamil Nadu dispute over the waters of the Cauvery river had its roots in two agreements in 1892 and 1924 between the erstwhile Madras Presidency and the Princely State of Mysore, one that outlived its utility long ago, but sowed the seeds of lasting discontent between the States.After several rounds of failed negotiations, the Supreme Court directed the constitution of the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal, which had given its award in 2007, allowing Tamil Nadu to draw a fixed amount of water every day.However, the dispute continued after both States filed a petition in the tribunal to review the decision.In 2016, Tamil Nadu again petitioned the Supreme Court as Karnataka submitted that it had no more water to share from its reservoir. Subsequently, the top court had asked the Central government to constitute a Cauvery Management Board (CMB).